Poking holes in someone else's darkness

I am constantly thinking about stories, mostly those belonging to the people I pass on the street or walking through the store...complete strangers with no connection to me, walking through their lives, many simply just trying to survive the moment they are in.  I believe you can see into someone's soul by looking in their eyes...and so many times we are in such a rush, trying to make our life happen, that we never even truly see the people around us...they almost pass in a blur.  My mind creates their story, weaving together the pieces of what they could be experiencing in a matter of moments...placing them in a context of sort based primarily on their expressions.  So many of them seem so lonely, so desperate for someone to really care about them, so cloaked in their own darkness and dispair...those are the stories I want to tell - those of the unheard, to give a voice to the silent, meaning to the overlooked.  But, those could be anyone's stories.  Yours, mine...we are all there at some point, empty, living our life in darkness; needing to be noticed for who we are not the visible flaws we can't hide. 

I have often tried to figure out why things happen...why our lives unfold the way they do.  I believe that everything happens for a reason in the time it is supposed to...that we meet the people we are supposed to meet at the time we are supposed to meet them.  Perhaps my biggest flaw is trying to hang onto people for longer than I'm allotted with them.  I have a hard time letting go and learning from the experience, cherishing the good memories and letting go of the pain and the questions.  I think the important thing to remember is that each person we meet shapes us, helps us become who we are at this point in our life.  And, each experience, each heartache, each joy, each moment of question helps us to be more empathetic to others...preparing us to poke holes in someone else's darkness.  Of course we don't think that way at the time.  We can't see past our own misery to imagine how it could ever bring us to a place where we could take that experience and help someone else.  But, that's what happens.  That may be the biggest gift, sometimes the only gift, from some of our most painful moments...wisdom; often gained at a very high price, but invaluable to not only us but to those we are able to share it with.